Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to control of a lighting device that can automatically change an irradiating direction.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when a lighting device such as a strobe device (hereinafter, simply referred to as strobe) emits light and photographing is performed, the strobe is controlled to face a ceiling or a wall to emit light, and diffusing strobe light is performed. By the diffusion of light, more natural light distribution than direct irradiation of an object with the strobe light can be obtained. Such a technique of performing photographing by diffusing the strobe light is typically referred to as bounce photographing.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-163179 discusses a technology that acquires distances to a focused object and to a reflection surface, based on a lens position of a focus lens when a photographing lens is focused on the object to obtain a bounce angle at which bounce light illuminates the object, from the acquired distances.
However, in the technology described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-163179, an error is caused in acquiring a distance to the object and a distance to the reflection surface. Therefore, a bounce angle inappropriate for the bounce photographing may be obtained. For example, when depth of field is deep, a focusing range of an object distance relative to a position of the focus lens is several meters. That is, the distance to the focused object acquired based on the lens position of the focus lens includes an error of several meters. Therefore, when the acquired distance to the object and an actual distance to the object are different by several meters, the object may be unnaturally irradiated with the bounce light at the obtained bounce angle.